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How are Netflix and YouTube reshaping culture?

UBC Okanagan's Dr. Kyong Yoon researches the effect of digital platforms on cultural production, distribution and consumption

May 2, 2024

WHILE WESTERN POPULAR CULTURE HAS DOMINATED the entertainment scene across the globe for decades, since the early 2000s a new competitor has emerged: Hallyu, or the Korean Wave.

From TV programs and pop music to video games and films, two decades later the global circulation of South Korean popular culture is bigger business than anyone could have initially imagined; the country’s exports of cultural content almost sextupled from USD $2.3 billion in 2008 to USD $12.4 billion in 2021.

Now, words and phrases like Blackpink, BTS, Gangnam Style, Squid Game and mukbang are readily recognizable and synonymous with South Korea’s culture and success.

But how exactly does pop culture move from one country to the next, and why do certain cultures explode in popularity?

That’s what Dr. Kyong Yoon wants to find out.

A Professor of Cultural Studies at UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, Dr. Yoon researches digital media, mobile communication, migration and Korean popular culture.

He says that South Korea is one of the few countries in the world that exports its popular culture to such a degree as a means of developing “soft power.” Soft power refers to the influence a country exerts through its image rather than through military or another coercive force.

“In the 1990s and 2000s, there was a rapid movement towards digitization. Videos and music could be shared more easily between people, which was further helped by the arrival of digital platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Netflix.

“All these factors combined at just the right time to help South Korea effectively export its culture.”

Dr. Yoon adds that compared to other Asian nations, South Korea is relatively small, which means its media and culture industries don’t have as large a domestic market as China or Japan. In response to rapid digitization, the country needed a new market, which turned out to be global.

As UBC Okanagan’s Principal’s Research Chair (PRC) in Trans-Pacific Digital Platform Studies, Dr. Yoon aims to advance the research on digital platforms that cross the Pacific Ocean like YouTube and Netflix, which are increasingly reshaping cultural production, distribution and consumption.

“My research over the last 10 years has found that cultural content and technology are very closely tied together. Technologies like the mobile phone and social media have been a definite component of success for South Korean content expansion.”

During his five-year PRC project, Dr. Yoon will comprehensively examine how media production, circulation and consumption are reshaped around major digital platforms and in transnational contexts. This will be done through an investigation of various platforms, the media content available on them and audience engagement with the platforms.

“These global platforms have contributed to the unexpected international success of non-Western media that otherwise would not have been disseminated globally.”

Dr. Yoon points to examples like the hugely popular Netflix show, Squid Game, as well as the growth of online videos like mukbang (known in English as an “eatcast”).

In these cases, viewers find the South Korean cultural content relevant to their everyday lives; “Squid Game depicts the hardship and insecurity that many people face in competitive capitalist societies, while mukbang offers the viewers a sense of eating together in increasingly individualized societies where people often have to eat alone,” Dr. Yoon says.

“These mukbang streamers sit in front of a camera and just eat. Sometimes there’s no communication, other times they tell a story. Some streamers also slurp and crunch and make all those noises that lead the viewer to ‘feel’ something while they’re watching.”

Research shows that watching mukbang can help viewers recreate the social aspect of dining with others; it can also open the door to enjoying luxury food or something not permitted on a diet, like binge eating junk food.

In exploring platforms like YouTube and other social media, Dr. Yoon hopes to use his PRC to explore this emerging field of digital platform studies, and move beyond the dominant Western-centric discourses about digital media.

“My goal is to contribute to opening up new areas of digital research, and enhance the interdisciplinary research capacities of UBC Okanagan, which has been a true space for inspiration for me.”

He adds: “The Principal’s Research Chair program has enabled me to develop global networks with leading scholars in the field of trans-Pacific digital media studies beyond UBC and Canada. I hope in the near future to host a first-of-its-kind international conference on trans-Pacific platform studies here on the UBC Okanagan campus, where a whole host of stimulating digital projects in the arts and humanities are taking place.”